The Number 607 Route

Tuesday 22 June 2010 

 As we climbed in this bus at Uxbridge bus station, Mary wondered if we should ever get it onto the blog (and lo, here we are!)

This was the third of our buses, with Linda away having what we hope was a sunny time in North Wales. We were on board by 12.55, rather excited at the thought of an ‘express’ bus: which seems to mean that it does not stop at all the available stops. 

Our first landmark was historic RAF Uxbridge,  parts of it looking a little decayed, though other areas still in - presumably community - use, with advertisements for a Psychic Fair coming up. No jokes about why they need to advertise, please.

With the benefit of hindsight, aka a couple of years, we know that much of the site has been redeveloped as housing.

There was a good cycle track along the main Uxbridge road, even if some people prefer the road, as is their right. We also admired the little lantern at the top of St John’s Church tower.


This was all very residential, and we passed from Hillingdon Parade’s shops into Hayes without a gap. A Martial Arts centre, advertised ‘bully proof your child today’ and we could see the Beck Theatre across the open space of Wood End. 

Big retail parks, not to mention a Tudor style Macdonalds (no fries in the days of Henry VIII and co; when the first potatoes arrived during the 1570s, people used to boil them) heralded the Grand Union Canal.  At once we were into Southall High Street. The Ayesha Siddiqa Girls’ School reminded us that Southall is not entirely Sikh!

Passing Southall Park, where a funfair was setting up, we moved into Hanwell, and saw the large Ealing and St Bernard’s Hospitals, before crossing the River Brent, not for the first time today.

Now we were in Ealing, and reaching Ealing Broadway, where we liked the look of the clock at the Arcadia Centre, which seems to have little people who might strike bells at the hour: but the internet is full of stuff about the failed plan to expand the centre, rather than interesting articles and pictures celebrating the clock.  We wished Linda had been with us, as she loves a clock.

On past Ealing Common and its station, we reached Acton and noted the Newman Hire Company,  which specializes in props for set dressing. Then it was Shepherds Bush, with people enjoying their lunch hours in the sun, and we arrived at White City bus garage at 14.05, after our third hour-long trip of the day. West London does stretch a seriously long way!

And we felt that the word 'Express' was a tiny bit misleading: many of the stops we missed out were in streets with heavy traffic, so we gained little benefit.

And so farewell to buses with only numbers, and on to the letters which, as we have said, will be blogged in an order as yet to be fully determined....